German Revolution
The German Revolution '''or the May Revolution''' was a conflict in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a Soviet workers republic. The revolutionary period lasted from October 1918 to May 1919 when the conflict escalated and became known as the German Civil War. The Civil War period lasted until November 1920, ending with the Treaty of Aachen and the defeat of the Weimar Republic. The causes of the revolution were the extreme burdens suffered by the population during the four years of war, the strong impact of the defeat on the German Empire and the social tensions between the general population and the elite of aristocrats and bourgeoisie who held power and had just lost the war. The roots of the revolution lay in the German Empire's defeat in the First World War and the social tensions that came to a head shortly thereafter. The first acts of revolution were triggered by the policies of the German Supreme Command of the Army and its lack of coordination with the Naval Command. In the face of defeat, the Naval Command insisted on trying to precipitate a climactic battle with the British Royal Navy by means of its naval order of 24 October 1918. The battle never took place. Instead of obeying their orders to begin preparations to fight the British, German sailors led a revolt in the naval ports of Wilhelmshaven on 29 October 1918, followed by the Kiel mutiny in the first days of November. These disturbances spread the spirit of civil unrest across Germany and ultimately led to the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Wilhelm II temporarily abdicated his throne and fled to the Netherlands. The revolutionaries, inspired by socialist ideas, initially did not hand over power to Soviet-style councils as the Bolsheviks had done in Russia, because the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) opposed their creation. As it became more and more apparent that the SPD did not intend to go through with a revolution, the breakaway USPD left the government and united with other groups to form the KPD. Although initially opposed to participation in national elections, the victory of the Volksmarinedivision over Ebert's army, and a speech from Rosa Luxemburg were enough to convince members of the KPD to participate and wait for the right time. In the 1919 elections, the KPD gained 24.7% of the vote, only falling slightly behind the SPD at 29.3%. This made the KPD the main opposition party, and this gained the party immense popularity in the following months as the SPD majority government failed to make compromises with workers, conservatives and the military alike. Friedrich Ebert narrowly survived an assassination attempt in March, and KPD sponsored strikes gripped the country day by day. Escalation of the Conflict On May 1st, 1919, massive armed protests planned by the KPD erupted in Berlin with protesters numbering in hundreds of thousands. The Volksmarinedivision chose to march with the protesters to protect them against the military and the Freikorps, however the reaction was suprisingly weak. Many members of the military either joined with the protesters, deserted, or refused to fire. Commander Gustav Noske was found shot to death in an alleyway, and Ebert quickly realized he had a crisis at hand. He desperately ordered whatever forces remained loyal to crush the uprising, however after some brief but violent clashes later in the day, it became apparent the city was in the firm hands of the self declared Socialist Republic of Germany. The fall of Berlin marked the beginning of the Civil War. Various uprisings spread across the country, with the strongest outside Berlin being in Bavaria. The vast majority of the socialist forces were made up of poorly trained, lightly armed militias, however the unpopularity of the Weimar government led to similar amounts of military defections as seen in Berlin. These defections were crucial to securing major cities such as Kiel, Hamburg and Cologne. However, the more conservative areas in East and West Prussia, who also were embroiled in a counter insurgency against the Poles, did not join the revolutionaries initially. -WIP-